Over winter break, images of a new fixture in the main lobby started to circulate on Instagram. It immediately sparked discussions of students who didn’t understand what was being installed. Most asked, “What is that thing?”

“This addition to our school [is] to provide extra protection,” school security assistant, Andrew Moore said. “[Technically], it’s a sally port.”

A sally port is a small, controlled entryway into a building. It was originally intended to protect a building from enemy fire, and eventually made its way to prison entries. It has been adapted over time, now functioning as a second access point to allow for more security.

The vestibule directive comes straight from Fairfax County as a part of ongoing security upgrades and enhancements.

“These vestibules enhance the security of a school’s single-entry point into the building by providing greater staff oversight of who is entering, not just for visitors, but for student late arrival or re-entry,” a representative from the FCPS Office of Facilities Planning Services said.

The construction isn’t complete, with doors being added to the frame and exit signs needing to be installed. This addition also included a second door being added to the office. Visitors will be checked at the exterior door and enter the locked second set of doors. From there, they will be sent to the office to receive a visitor’s pass before they are allowed to enter the rest of the building.

But this isn’t the first security related measure to be implemented at Hayfield’s entryway. Students may only arrive through doors 1 and 9 in the morning. In addition, the entire building switched door locks from a standard key to push locks. This effort began in 2018 starting with elementary schools, making it to Hayfield in 2022.

Keeping a safe environment involves much more than just physical features. While most students know him as our former football coach, Darryl Overton is Hayfield’s head of security. Hired last spring, he officially took the position at the beginning of this school year and implemented multiple changes.

“We have a rotation of posts of where everyone is. That way, in case of emergency, everybody knows where they’re assigned and what their duty station is,” Overton said. “I believe that security has a great relationship with students… I think that’s another big thing that we have done a good job of, the kids come and tell us about what’s going on in school.”

When threats emerge, Overton doesn’t handle it alone. He collaborates with an entire team of administrators, security guards and teachers.

“[It’s usually] a chain of command, so security threats come in a lot of different ways… teachers [have] disturbances like a student being disruptive and they try to [get] security to come. More serious threats usually come from the principal or admin. Dr. Thompson [has] a crisis management team, we meet and we assess any threats,” Overton said. “We’ve handled some things already during the year, [so swiftly] that you guys don’t know about. We took care of it, whether it was inside or outside.”

But teachers play a larger role than most students realize.They are often the first ones to encounter a situation, and often find themselves handling it.

“There’s a ton of training, everything from how to deal with students that go into anaphylactic shock, or what to do if there’s a fight, or what to do if a student is hurting other people or themselves or when you’re allowed to restrain students or not, and all kinds of stuff, every single year all those like teacher work days where [students] don’t have to go to school, we usually do trainings,” Government teacher Brian Gillespie said.

In addition to this, teachers can be spotted stationed around the hallways during their planning periods. They are often operating tardy stations or sending students back to class.

“I stand in an empty hallway every morning,” a fine arts teacher said. “[Hallway stations] take away 15 minutes of my planning period.”

But sometimes, this isn’t enough. Hayfield and surrounding schools have received specific threats on multiple occasions, such as last spring when a bomb threat at neighboring West Potomac sent Hayfield into a Stay Put, Stay Tuned order. These claims are often difficult to identify, especially in regards to legitimacy.

“Fairfax County has [a large] security team on top of it. They work very closely with the Fairfax County fire department [and] police. There’s usually always a lot of communication,” Overton said.

However, Hayfield students often feel in the dark about the role of security guards and how they actively ensure safety.

“It would be nice if I kind of knew the purpose of [security] sitting in the hallway. I feel like sometimes I don’t understand where a certain person is sitting in [the hallway], or I don’t understand why they’re sitting in a specific area,” senior Abigail Chaffin said.

Whether for better or for worse, most students are in the dark as to what measures Hayfield security takes to keep them safe.